Saturday brings the Fa Cup first round to The Banks’s stadium, with the visit of Shrewsbury in the cup for the first time in 53 odd years and the magic of the cup, should have the place buzzing, free tickets for early bird season ticket holders should also raise the temperature, so why is the whole atmosphere flat. There is just no excitiment so perhaps we can only hope that our local neighbours are getting excited and will bring some enthusium.
Vital Quotes:
DD who has his own midfield problems is trying to talk up the match, but talk of 8 to 10 thousand crowds seems far from realistic.
Darren Wrack speaks for most Saddlers when he says a cup run is over due at Walsall.
Talk from Shrewsbury is very much upbeat despite poor recent form. The atmosphere changing with there recent win over Wrexham cheered on by 1200 away fans, a few more will be here for the cup….including a drummer I am told.
Walsall Team News:
Rhys Weston should have recovered from his head injury to prevent the need for another teenager to appear in the first team.
Midfield is the place where we could lose the match. As we saw last year we will need to be competitive before we can play football. On tuesday Wrack and Bradley struggled in this area and unless we change things about in defence it maybe the same issue on saturday, the problem is there is no experienced midfielder to bring in, although a new loanee will be with us for next weekend.
Up front Ricketts and Mooney will look to provide the cutting edge, the only other question is if Ishmels wonder strike will be enough to grab the shirt off Paul Hall.
Player to watch: Darren Wrack
It’s simple the experienced heads will be required to guide the youngsters through Darren looks likely to start in central midfield, how he performs and guides Mark Bradley through the game will be crucial.
Shrewsbury Team News:
The joy of an away win against Wrexham after a run of poor form was dampened by the loss away to Darlington by 2-0 However there will be no question that they will be up for this one.
Injury wise no further injuries have been reported, although GP has a history of shaking up his squad for the cup.
Player to watch: Ben Davies
Unfortunatly the ex saddler is sidelined following injury and has only returned to full time training this week so we will miss welcoming him back.
However we wish him the best for his recovery.
Match Facts & Stats
Meetings since 2002
26/12/2006 Walsall 1 – 0 Shrewsbury
26/09/2006 Shrewsbury 1 – 1 Walsall
10/09/2002 Walsall 1 – 0 Shrewsbury
Walsall Last Five Games
06/11/2007 Brighton 1 – 1 Walsall
03/11/2007 Walsall 2 – 0 Cheltenham
27/10/2007 Bournemouth 1 – 1 Walsall
20/10/2007 Walsall 0 – 2 Southend
12/10/2007 Tranmere 0 – 0 Walsall
Shrewsbury Town Last Five Games
06/11/2007 Darlington 2 – 0 Shrewsbury
04/11/2007 Wrexham 0 – 1 Shrewsbury
27/10/2007 Shrewsbury 0 – 0 Mansfield
20/10/2007 Bury 1 – 1 Shrewsbury
13/10/2007 Shrewsbury 2 – 3 Chesterfield
Match Prediction:
With our midfield problems, i am going for a draw…if only so we can visit there new ground!!
Next Fixtures:
Luton Town next saturday at home 3pm kick off.
